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I went into Pearle Vision today. When I was walking around the store, I accidentally bumped one of the computers. And what did I see? The XScreenSaver password prompt! Yes, Pearle Vision is running Linux. And not just in the backroom, these were the actual workstations out in the showroom. Cool stuff.
Thanks to this post on LQ, I discovered that Firefox and Thunderbird have been added to slackware-current. Sweetness. Now I just hope that the next version ships with 2.6 as default so I don’t have to upgrade whenever I install.
There’s a nice Cedega Tweaking Guide over at LinuxGamers. It’s meant for Half-Life 2, but most of the tweaks apply to all games. I did the following
Some distributions need to set up a System-Variable. First, you have to examine if it is set. cat /proc/sys/vm/legacy_va_layout No output means, that this Variable isn't set. As root: echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/legacy_va_layout This setting only survives up to the next reboot. To set up this Variable permanently, open your /etc/sysctl.conf and append vm.legacy_va_layout = 1
VIDEORAM Don't forget to set Videoram and AGPVertexRAM to the values of your graphics card. Read the description in the config file and in the release notes of Cedega. The best value for Videocards with 256MB of Videoram is: "VideoRam" = "256" and "AGPVertexRam" = "128" Use adjusted values after this pattern for cards with less memory. ALSA If you have ALSA then use the winealsa.drv of Cedega. It will give you a small FPS boost. Open ~/.transgaming/config or ~/.point2play//config and edit the [WinMM] section to "Driver" = "winealsa.drv"
I have a new laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8600. The specs are as follows:
I lucked out with the video card. Granted 64mb isn’t too hot, but ATI Linux support is dicey, so I wanted an Nvidia. Nick is also looking to get a new laptop and he discovered a few days ago that Dell is no longer selling the 8600 with Nvidia cards (probably why I got 25% off).
When I got the thing it was running Windows XP. Of course I wanted Linux. I wasn’t quite sure what distro I wanted to put on it, but I was leaning towards Slack.
The first order of business was to burn the Slackware 10.1 ISOs I’d downloaded earlier. I swear I was in Windows for at least 45 minutes trying to figure out how to burn a damn ISO. After that I just got fed up with it, formatted and installed Suse (which, by the way, resized and kept the Windows partitions. Interesting). After about three seconds in Suse I was burning the images. And they call Windows user-friendly…
The next few hours were spent distro-whoring. I went through Suse, Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Slackware, finally settling on Slack.
Getting everything to work in Slackware took a little work, but wasn’t too much trouble.
The first thing was, of course, to install the Nvidia drivers. Grabbing them off Nvidia’s site and installing them the normal way works fine (ignore the warning the installer gives about the conflicting rivafb module). My trouble was getting X to load after that. With the help of Google, I was able to make a custom xorg.conf that worked just dandy.
The second thing I wanted working was the wireless, which uses the ipw2200 module. I don’t know if it supports kernel 2.4, but I couldn’t get it working without upgrading to 2.6 (slackware 10.1 still ships with 2.4, with 2.6 in /testing).
Upgrading to 2.6 is easy. Simply read the README.initrd in /testing/packages/linux-2.6.10/. In the step that has you installpkg everything, I’d also add kernel-source (44MB).
When I got 2.6 running, it was a simple matter of doing make, make install on ipw2200. Then I extracted the firmware to /lib/firmware. After that finishes:
modprobe ipw2200
iwconfig
dhcpcd eth0
Also, reading the iwconfig man page is helpful.
Now the wireless is running. To switch back to the wired connection, do a
modprobe -r ipw2200
modprobe b44
ifconfig eth0 up
The next thing was sound. Since I’d upgraded to 2.6, I needed to install the new alsa-drivers. After that, there’s the problem of a conflicting module named snd_intel8x0m (something to do with modem sound). That needs to be removed and added to the blacklist.
modprobe -r snd_intel8x0m
pico /etc/hotplug/blacklist
Now all that’s left to do is run alsaconf and alsamixer to adjust volume.
It’s been running great for a few days now. The only thing I’m still working on is getting ACPI fully working (i.e. making the screen turn off when it’s closed).
I was able to skip school today and job shadow at Intermec. I shadowed two UNIX admins for most of the day. It was good times. I learned a lot, played with new toys, and spent time in the GNOC (global network operations center). They were surprised I knew anything about Linux (I turned a couple people on to Slackware and Gentoo), and the engineering guys want me to work for them.
In other news, being in the mall when the power goes out is cool.
To backup:
$ mysqldump -u username -p -h hostname databasename > filename
And restore:
$ cat filename | mysql -u username -p -h hostname databasename
It took 4 hours (including last night), but mplayer finally plays quicktime movies with audio. I am now, unlike you, watching the new Matrix Reloaded trailer (uber 1000x540 version, not listed on thematrix.com) in Linux. Full screen.
The new Nvidia Linux drivers work great!
Simply run the nifty new installer and change your driver from ‘nv’ to ‘nvidia’ in XF86Config-4